There`s a lot going on in the world right now from Iraq, to Ukraine, Governor Perry got his arraignment date today for when he gets his mug shot taken. We`ve got two new U.S. Senate candidates this weekend and may get two more new ones tomorrow. We`re going to get to all of that in this hour tonight.

But we start, of course, in Ferguson, Missouri. President Obama commented on the situation in Ferguson this afternoon. President back at the White House for one day, in the middle of his Massachusetts vacation which is otherwise already in progress. The president came back to the White House last night. He spoke from the White House briefing room this afternoon.

And he announced that Attorney General Eric Holder is going to be personally going to Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday. The attorney general will be meeting with U.S. -- the U.S. attorney`s office there and with Justice Department prosecutors from the civil rights division who are already there in Missouri as well.

He`ll also be meeting with some of the FBI agents who have been sent into that community to carry out the federal investigation into the Michael Brown shooting. More than 40 FBI agents are already on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri. Apparently, they`re doing door-to-door canvassing of the neighborhood in which the shooting happened, looking for eyewitnesses and other information about what happened last Saturday when that young man was killed by a Ferguson police officer.

Attorney General Holder released a statement tonight about his plans to go to Ferguson. I have to say, the statement was very blunt in its criticism of local officials for how they have dealt with some of this so far.

Quote, "The selective release of sensitive information that we have seen in this case so far is troubling to me. No matter how others pursue their own separate inquiries, the Justice Department is resolved to preserve the integrity of its investigation. This is a critical step of restoring trust between law enforcement and the community, not just in Ferguson, but beyond." Troubling selective release of sensitive information.

At the same time we got that public statement from the attorney general criticizing local authorities for selectively releasing sensitive information, we also got a quote to "The New York Times" from an anonymous federal law enforcement official, also criticizing local officials, specifically criticizing the local police department in Ferguson, Missouri, for their decision last week to release images and surveillance camera footage and an 18-page incident report from a convenience store apparent robbery, in which police said that Michael Brown was implicated.

Several hours after local police released that information, they admitted that there was no indication that the convenience store incident had anything whatsoever to do with police stopping Mike Brown on the street and ultimately shooting him, but nevertheless, they put that stuff out there. Without warning, a local police department decided they would release that information about the convenience store. They released it on Friday.

Presumably in the hopes of making the shooting victim look like a bad guy. This unnamed federal law enforcement official tells "The New York Times" that the Justice Department specifically asked the Ferguson police department to not release that footage from the convenience store. When the Ferguson police department released that video on Friday, it, quote, "occurred over the objection of federal authorities."

So, the Justice Department told the local police, don`t release that footage. It`s not relevant. Just going to throw gas on the flames on this town, which is already on fire. Don`t release it.

Local police released it, anyway. That was Friday.

And over the weekend, the Justice Department tells "The New York Times," we told them not to release it and they did it, anyway.

And now, today, it has happened again or at least a different version of it. Today, two unnamed sources who are, quote, "familiar with the official county autopsy of Michael Brown", tell "The Washington Post" that when 18-year-old Mike Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, he, "had marijuana in his system."

And, again, there`s no immediately obvious reason why this would be relevant to the question of why a police officer shot this young man. It does, however, go some distance toward trying to make the victim in that shooting seem bad.

And, again, this selective release of information presumably comes from local authorities. This time, anonymously. Unnamed sources who are familiar with the official county autopsy of Michael Brown.

So, they released the incident report on the convenience store robbery and the surveillance camera footage and some particularly damning still images from that convenience store incident. And they released the full unredacted 18-page police incident report from that robbery. They don`t release any incident report on the shooting.

And now with the autopsy, somebody has leaked the fact that there allegedly was marijuana in this kid`s system. They can release that, but they can`t release any information about, say, how many times he was shot.

After the county did its own autopsy from where we are apparently getting the marijuana leak, the family made arrangements to have their own hired experts do another autopsy. The results of that private autopsy were released formally this morning at this press conference, but the bottom-line conclusion of that autopsy that Mike Brown was reportedly shot six times, that information was first posted online by "The New York Times" at about 11:00 p.m. Eastern, 10:00 local time last night.

And that was around the time that last night`s protests on the streets of Ferguson turned into the worst night of clashes yet in terms of violence and what police described as the threat level on the streets. Last night was the third straight night of police shooting tear gas canisters into the protests in Ferguson. But last night is the first time police have said there were multiple guns on the scene and multiple shots fired, including multiple shots fired at police.

The one night that has been relatively peaceful thus far, I mean, rowdy and loud but peaceful in Ferguson, since the shooting of Michael Brown, one night that has been not marked by violence or by massive militarized police presence was Thursday night. That was the first night that Missouri Highway Patrol under Captain Ronald Johnson was put in charge of policing the protests.

Thursday night was the night that police pulled back from -- pulled back to the perimeter. They got out of their SWAT gear and their armored vehicles. Senior police officials marched with protesters that night. There was not a single roadblock, not a single arrest, not a single tear gas canister fired. That was Thursday.

But then, Friday, the local police released that convenience store footage and Friday night and every night since then, it`s been back to a much, much scarier scene after dark.

Saturday, that state police captain, Ron Johnson, and Governor Jay Nixon stood together to announce Ferguson was being put under a state of emergency, a curfew was being imposed. Again, this was Saturday after a bad night on Friday night. And a sign that imposing that curfew, and imposing that state of emergency was not going to dial things down, that was pretty immediate right then and there at the press conference when they were announcing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD MEMBER: Are you going to do tear gas again? Are you bringing back military force? How are you planning to enforce this curfew?

(CROSSTALK)

GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: The best way for any --

CROWD MEMBER: Captain Johnson?

NIXON: We`ll hear from him. We`ll hear from him.

(CROSSTALK)

(INAUDIBLE)

NIXON: The best way for us to get peace is for everybody to help to make sure that everybody gets home safe tonight at 12:00 and gets a good solid five hours` sleep before they get up tomorrow morning and that we`re going to -- the captain --

CROWD MEMBER: Sleep is not an option, Governor Nixon. We want justice!

CROWD MEMBER: Why is the focus on security and not getting justice?

CROWD MEMBER: If Mike Brown had shot a cop, he would be in jail. We want justice!

(APPLAUSE)

CROWD MEMBER: Why was the police officer --

NIXON: If we want justice -- for those that --

(CROSTALK)

NIXON: I`ll let you -- just a second. I`ll let you yell at me next. If we want --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One question at a time, please.

CROWD MEMBER: All right, bro.

NIXON: If we want justice, we cannot be distracted. We must be focused on making sure that people are allowed their First Amendment rights, but we do so in a peaceful fashion. We cannot have looting and crimes at night. We can`t have people fearful --

CROWD MEMBER: We can`t have police officers killing people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That was Saturday afternoon, announcing state of emergency and a curfew from midnight to 5:00 a.m. After a bad night of violence on Friday night, they announced that state of emergency and curfew on Saturday.

On Saturday night, this is what it looked like as they tried to enforce that curfew. Again, there are lots of peaceful protests, lots of peaceful protesters, lots of actually civil disobedience. But then also violence and a police stance that did look more military than anything else. That was Saturday night. That was the first night of the curfew.

Then, this was Sunday night. This was last night. Second night of the curfew.

Again, last night considered to be probably the worst night that has happened thus far. At around 1:15 in the morning, so early this morning, really late last night, 1 1:15 a.m. local time, in the middle of a terrible night during which a dozen people were injured, police say multiple shots were fired, at one point the employees of a local McDonald`s barricaded themselves inside their store in the storage room because they feared for their own safety as people overran the restaurant.

After that very difficult night last night, at about a quarter after 1:00 in the morning, Captain Ron Johnson gave this press conference in which he summarized over what happened in the course of the night and police had to take additional security measures to try to restore order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

CAPT. RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL: Chief Sam Dotson of the St. Louis City Police Department and I have been in discussion with Governor Jay Nixon and Colonel Replogle who were at the highway patrol headquarters in Jefferson City. We are planning additional steps to quiet the violence. We are all determined to restore peace and safety to the people of Ferguson, and I believe the continued resolve of a good people of this community will ultimately triumph over the few people bent on violence and destruction.

Have time to take a few questions before I return to operational planning.

REPORTER: How many people have been injured? How many people --

JOHNSON: We had at least, I believe at least three people. We had a couple shooting victims. So I think two or three people have been injured.

REPORTER: Any officers injured? Were those random shootings or were they --

JOHNSON: Yes, those shootings, we were responding to those shootings. Those shootings that occurred on the field had nothing to do with law enforcement. It was between people that were actually out on the scene there.

REPORTER: They weren`t domestic shootings?

JOHNSON: No, they were people out on Florissant.

REPORTER: Did the crowd try to take the command center (INAUDIBLE) officers injured?

JOHNSON: There were no officers injured.

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: Sir, you mentioned additional steps. Can you tell us what additional steps --

JOHNSON: We are going to go back and do some operational planning to determine what that will be.

REPORTER: Does that mean you`re calling the National Guard in?

JOHNSON: No. At this point, we`re taking additional steps and we will evaluate our resources.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: So, you can see the exhaustion there, and the frustration. That was 1:15 a.m. local time this morning.

Captain Johnson saying, yes, more needs to be done by police to keep order on the streets. We`re going to do additional operational planning. We need to step this up somehow, this is not safe enough. But he said explicitly this will not involve the National Guard.

That was 1:15 a.m. at 2:00 a.m., Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri announced that he was, in fact, calling out the National Guard.

Governor explaining in a statement today that they would not be imposing the curfew for the third night tonight, but the National Guard would be called out. The National Guard would be deployed specifically to protect the facility that the police are using as their operational headquarters on the scene.

So, in this evolving, frustrating, ever-changing, chaotic, sometimes self-contradictory array of tactics by law enforcement you`ve had just since we were last on the air talking about this, you`ve had the curfew declared, an announcement they would not use tear gas to enforce the curfew, then they did use tear gas to impose the curfew. Then they said it would not do more but would not include the National Guard. Now it does include the National Guard, but they are not doing the curfew.

And then something new today during daylight hours today in Fergusons as Chris Hayes has been reporting, police informing people out on the street in what has become the protest zone that they would not be allowed to protest while standing still. There would be no congregating allowed. People were told by police today on the street that they would not -- police would not be allowing any static protests, meaning protests in which people hold still.

That restriction was not a crimp on the style of this protest march today. A march from St. Louis` Keener Plaza to the state office building a few blocks away where protesters demanded to be let into the building to meet with state officials. The protesters were not let into that state office building. They ended up sitting down at the entrance, some of them, and there were eight arrests at this protest march today in St. Louis, including a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, a woman named Hedy Epstein.

We also learned just hours ago from photographer for "Getty" images, Scott Olson, who`s taken the most iconic images of the protest movement so far, he was arrested in Ferguson at the end of the day today. He`s been on assignment in Ferguson, captured some of the images that have been most widely distributed of all, including this one from last night.

Here`s Mr. Olson explaining in an Instagram video why he was arrested as he was being arrested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT OLSON, GETTY: I`m being arrested because they said --

POLICE: Keep moving.

OLSON: -- the media is required to be in a certain area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: So that is the chaotic process by which we got to where we are right now. The president addressing the situation directly from the White House today. The attorney general due to arrive the day after tomorrow, yet more selective leaking designed to make Mike Brown look bad, apparently from local authorities, a day of evolving standards on protests and policing. No apparent diminishment in anger or people`s willingness to demonstrate their anger.

And right now, it is 81 degrees and not raining in Ferguson, Missouri. This is the scene right now in downtown Ferguson, where things are definitely still in motion. No curfew is being imposed, but nobody quite knows what`s going to happen tonight.

Joining us now is Charlie Dooley. He`s county executive for St. Louis County, Missouri. He`s asked the Missouri general to remove the county prosecuting attorney from the investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Mr. Dooley, thank you very much for your time tonight. Thanks for being with us.

CHARLIE DOOLEY, ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MO. EXECUTIVE: Thanks for having me, Rachel.

MADDOW: Let me ask you, first, about the decision to call out the National Guard. The decision by the governor to suspend the curfew that was at least nominally in effect on Saturday night and Sunday night. What`s your opinion about the current standards by which these protests are being policed?

DOOLEY: Well, again, the National Guard is supposed to securing the command center. That`s all they`re doing. They`ll free up the police officers to be in the street to help keep peace and to work with protesters and make sure they can assemble in a peaceful manner?

MADDOW: In terms of the curfew and in terms of different styles of policing that we have seen over the past few nights, obviously, Thursday night seems to have been the high water mark in terms of people peacefully protesting without too much disruption and certainly without violence.

Are you hopeful that the community can get back to that sort of a state, or do you think this is going to be a tenser, more difficult confrontation, essentially going forward?

DOOLEY: I`m hopeful that we`ll get back to some kind of normalcy. I understand the curfew had some issue with that. It did not do what we wanted it to do. The outcome was not successful.

So, I guess that the thing the governor indicated was that he would drop the curfew and work with that and bring in the National Guard to secure the command center, to free up policemen to be out there where the protesters are going, to make sure that they`re safe but also to make sure that those that are disturbing the community, the bad element, that they are arrested and pursued.

MADDOW: Why have you asked that the county prosecutes attorney, Bob McCulloch, either recuse himself or be removed from the investigation? Why do you think he`s not the appropriate prosecutor to look into this shooting?

DOOLEY: Well, his past has been suspect to the African-American community, quite frankly. There`s been a Tyrone Thompson, about four years ago. There`s no conclusion to that situation. There`s an Antoinette Green. That situation, and the Jackson Box (ph) issue.

The things he`s said about the governor about this incident, some of the leakage, some of the video leakage, all of those things are suspect. I believe that the African-American community has said they have no confidence in the prosecuting attorney, prosecuting this case. If that`s what they feel, then he`s a part of the problem, and he is not part of the solution.

MADDOW: The federal resources brought to bear, President Obama announced today that the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is coming to Ferguson on Wednesday. The Justice Department already opened its own investigation. FBI agents are on the ground canvassing for an independent federal investigation.

Do you feel like federal authorities coming into this is essentially a better direction or is this something that can exist alongside an appropriate local investigation?

DOOLEY: I think this is the right thing to do. Again, there`s a strained relationship between the authorities at this point in time. If that`s not going to get the job done, we need to do something different.

I applaud the president and Eric Holder. Send in more FBI agents in there to do the criminal investigation. That is an objective. They`re an outside party. It gives it validity. It gives it a commitment of transparency, which we have not had at this point.

MADDOW: Charlie Dooley, county executive, St. Louis County, Missouri -- I know this is a very busy time for you, sir. Thanks for talking with us. I appreciate it.

DOOLEY: Thank you.

MADDOW: All right. We`ve got lots more ahead, from Ferguson, and elsewhere. Including a steep escalation of the federal government`s involvement in this case which President Obama outlined today.

We`re also going to be speaking live with Anthony Gray, an attorney for Michael Brown`s family.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: These are live images from downtown Ferguson, Missouri, right now, where, again, there is no curfew in effect tonight as there was Saturday night and Sunday night. But police are blocking all private vehicles from West Florissant from the main drag downtown where protests have happened.

Again, the National Guard has been called out today. The guard is primarily, I guess, defending would be the right word, the police operation center which police said was threatened by protesters over the course of the weekend.

We`re watching this unfold tonight. It`s about 80 degrees and it`s not raining for the first night in a few nights in downtown Ferguson. We`re going to speak with an attorney for Michael Brown`s family, coming up next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: The last time that Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri deployed the National Guard within his state was last year, when the Mississippi River flooded all up and down the length of that great state. It happened in April. It happened again in August.

And when the governor called up the guard, they deployed to rive riverbank towns along the Mississippi and basically sandbagged until the cows came home. They built sandbag levies thousands of feet long. The guard was basically the skilled manual labor the state called on in bulk to hold off the rise of the river.

The governor said at the time, quote, "We pick flood fights where we can win them and this is certainly a flood fight we are going to win."

Well, today, tonight, the National Guard has been called out again in Missouri and this time, the flood fight is the flood of emotion and anger after the police killing of an unarmed black teenager last weekend, and after the policing of the protests on the street of Ferguson has turned into a nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spoke to Jay Nixon about this, expressed an interest in making sure that if, in fact, a National Guard is used, it used in a limited and appropriate way. He described the support role that they`re going to be providing to local law enforcement, and I`ll be watching over the next several days to assess whether, in fact, it`s helping rather than hindering progress in Ferguson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: President Obama speaking today from the White House. This started obviously as a local tragedy, a local crisis, but it is now not just a national story, it is a federal one.

President Obama in making those remarks today, he announced Attorney General Eric Holder will be personally in Ferguson on Wednesday. General Holder will be meeting with the federal prosecutor`s office in Missouri and also with Justice Department officials from the community policing office and also from the civil rights division who have gone to Ferguson already.

The independent federal investigation of Michael Brown`s killing also includes several dozen FBI agents on the ground there already.

And it includes the Justice Department doing its own federal autopsy of Michael Brown`s body. That federal autopsy reportedly took place today. That comes after the county did its autopsy and after the family arranged for its own additional autopsy. So, the federal one will be the third one.

For those who do not trust local authorities in a case like this, is it reassuring to have the federal Justice Department engaged in the way they are engaged? And after the shock of so much military-style policing of the protest in Ferguson, will it help matters or hurt matters to have the actual military, the National Guard, on the scene at the police command post in Ferguson? Thus removing all euphemism from the ongoing sense that this has looked like a war zone out there.

Joining us now is Anthony Gray. He`s an attorney for the family of Michael Brown.

Mr. Gray, thank you for joining us tonight. It`s nice to have you back.

ANTHONY GRAY, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL BROWN`S FAMILY: Thank you for having me, Rachel. It`s nice to be back.

MADDOW: Thanks.

Well, today, the results of the autopsy that was performed at the request of the family was released. Why did the family want to do their -- want to have their own autopsy done? And what to you make of the federal decision to do even an additional autopsy, so there will be three all together?

GRAY: Well, I think at the end of the day, each individual that`s responsible in some way, or some aspects, in looking at this case, my firm along with Ben Crump and Daryl Parks, as well as the federal government, want to have information that they can direct, that they can trust, coming from sources that they trust and information they can put their fingertips on. And so, from that standpoint, I can understand why you have three separate autopsies.

MADDOW: In terms of the family and how they`re doing, we`re now nine days into this, nine days since Mr. Brown was killed. How is the family holding up? And how -- I guess how are they coping? What`s their strategy as a family to try to hold it together with so much attention and so much pressure amid their grief?

GRAY: Sure. Sure.

Well, I don`t know how you prepare for this. I don`t know what class you can take to cope with something like this.

And I can just tell you this, Rachel, from the very first day that this happened, it`s been overwhelming and shocking for this family. They have not buried their child. He has not been laid to rest yet, and so, all of the emotions are still there from that initial day, and that initial event.

And so, all of what you`re seeing in the aftermath of that is just compounding what you would have in the ordinary course of losing a loved one, under the circumstances that we face right now.

MADDOW: When the president announced today that not only is there this independent federal investigation, but Attorney General Eric Holder will personally be coming to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with federal investigators, dozens of FBI agents already in Ferguson. We`re seeing a very intense level of federal engagement, including the president having spoken on this issue multiple times, I have to ask if that -- with the concerns that you`ve expressed and the family has expressed about local authorities being able to handle this in a just way, is that comforting to see the federal government involved? And are they doing what the family wants them to do?

GRAY: Well, not necessarily. We don`t know if they`re doing what the family wants them to do because we don`t know what they`re doing. The federal government is being left to their own devices.

I can tell you this, there`s a sense of comfort, there`s a sense of encouragement that the family receives in knowing that the federal government is involved and it`s pretty much conducting its own investigation. To the extent that it provides those kind of intangibles to the family is very welcoming.

MADDOW: In terms of the family`s opinion about how this is being handled, I have to ask you about the decision to call up the National Guard. National Guard is not directly on the streets, as I understand it. They`re at the police operation center.

You spoke very eloquently here with us on Friday night about the need to stay peaceful and dignified and to do honor to Michael Brown`s memory by protesting this in a way that was civil and constructive. I have to get your reaction to the deployment of the guard here.

GRAY: Well, Rachel, I can tell you this. I don`t want to criticize those that are in operational control. I think that Ferguson has been made out to be a laboratory in terms of the experiments that are happening with security. I have to respect those that see that what didn`t work yesterday, we need to change it and do something today differently.

And, you know, because we have not had this kind of behavior in the past, and St. Louis is relatively -- I said I can`t recall a time in my lifetime where we`ve had mass looting and rioting in the way you`ve seen the last several days. So, what I envision law enforcement doing is adjusting their approach as the situation changes.

So, today, we had a National Guard here. They`re going to play their role. We`ll see how it works. If it doesn`t work out well, I`m sure that those that are in control will go back to the drawing board and make adjustments based on the current security needs.

MADDOW: Anthony Gray, attorney for the family of Michael Brown, thank you for joining us tonight, sir. I appreciate you being here. Thank you.

GRAY: Thank you for having me again, Rachel. It`s always good to talk to you.

MADDOW: Thanks.

All right. Since this story began, some of the most effective agents of calm in Ferguson have turned out to be the protesters, themselves, and some of that kind of amazing detail is ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: If you have been watching MSNBC at all over the last week or so, you`ll know that my colleague, Chris Hayes, has been doing some incredible reporting from on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri. Chris has been there since last Thursday. Chris has not only been anchoring his own show at 8:00 Eastern, he`s also been providing invaluable reporting and coverage for the whole network.

I want to show you one piece of reporting that Chris did last night that was kind of amazing. This was the scene last night while Chris was reporting live on the air for MSNBC. This is about two hours before last night`s midnight curfew was set to go into effect. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, "ALL IN" HOST: There`s a, what looks like kind of a SWAT team standing out into the darkness outside the QT between a dumpster fire which has been set right near the QT into what`s become the infamous gas station where things went down the first night. That, of course, the QT where people had rumored that he`d been accused of --

POLICE: Get behind us!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s that?

POLICE: Do not pass us!

HAYES: Getting barked at by the cops not to pass them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you hold your phone up so we can hear that a little better?

HAYES: He just said to me on air, media, do not pass us, you`re getting maced next time you pass us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re threatening to mace you?

HAYES: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Had a lot of conversations with Chris Hayes, they`ve never included the phrase "they`re threatening to mace you."

That was around 10:00 local time last night as police were trying to keep a lid on things just before that midnight curfew went into effect. There is no such midnight curfew in place in Ferguson tonight.

In terms of our ongoing coverage tonight, you should know that Chris Hayes will be back live at 11:00 Eastern tonight for a brand new edition of his show, live from the streets of downtown Ferguson for that hour. So, plan to stay up.

And we`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: This is the scene in Ferguson, Missouri, tonight, as the governor of Missouri has called off the midnight to 5:00 a.m. curfew that was imposed last night and the night before, but he has called out the National Guard to protect the police operation center on the scene, apparently with a mind toward there by freeing up more police to be out among the protesters, trying to keep the peace tonight.

The highway patrol captain who`s at least not only in charge of policing the streets of Ferguson to allow protests, Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, he and his officers, frankly, have not been able to keep the peace over the past three nights. In the same way that they were able to on Thursday night.

But Captain Johnson has still been able personally to at least speak to the situation on the ground, and the feelings of the community and the protesters in a way that seems to strike a nerve whenever he does it publicly, striking a nerve, I mean that in a good way.

Yesterday afternoon, Captain Johnson spoke at the greater grace church before a large crowd and he started with a landmark apology, maybe the first one yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: Good evening.

CROWD: Good evening.

JOHNSON: I want to start off by talking to Mike Brown`s family. And I want you to know my heart goes out to you. And I say that I`m sorry. I wear this uniform, and I should stand up here and say that I`m sorry.

(APPLAUSE)

This is my neighborhood. You are my family. You are my friends. And I am you.

(APPLAUSE)

And I will stand and protect you. I will protect your right to protest.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And I`m telling you right now, I`m full right now. I came in here today and I saw people cheering and people clapping, and this is what the media needs to put on TV.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Because when this is over, I`m going to go in my son`s room, my black son --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to the side, got tattoos on his arms, but that`s my baby.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

We need to pray. We need to thank Mike for his life. We need to thank him for the change that he is going to make and to make us better.

I love you. I stand tall with you. And I`ll see you out there. Thank you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: I can hear the kind of reception that he got. That was Captain Ron Johnson speaking last night in Ferguson, and as well-received as those remarks were in that church, after those remarks, last night was a terrible night on the streets. They say it was the worst yet. But for every night when we have reported violence, violent police tactics, violence between protesters, violence between police and protesters, looting -- for all of that, there are these days, these mornings when local folks come out to clean up, to try to make it right, to try to be constructive.

And that has happened over and over and over again. Although that is a much lo lower-profile thing than when the looting happens under those klieg lights and the tear gas canisters flying.

And sometimes the looting doesn`t happen, it`s because the protesters themselves are stopping the looting from happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re protecting our community, the store, everything, let everyone know that everyone out here is not criminals. Everyone out here came to peacefully -- that`s what we`re standing for right now. I don`t know if -- only one guy behind me I know. The rest of the guys I don`t know. We came out here and stopped the looting as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Again, tonight in Missouri police are not imposing the midnight to 5 a.m. curfew of the last two nights.

But there was an effort by folks who want do be seen as leaders on the ground, whether or not they are -- there was an effort at the press conference to ask people, ask protesters to please not protest after dark, not just tonight but for the next five nights.

Who has the credibility, locally, to make that kind of ask in this community right now? Who had that kind of credibility coming into this crisis, and who is earning that kind of credibility by being a leader, by being a trustworthy leader on day nine of this crisis and presumably heading into day 10?

Joining us now is Lizz Brown. She`s an attorney and columnist for "The St. Louis American."

Ms. Brown, thank you very much for being with us. It`s nice to see you.

LIZZ BROWN, ST. LOUIS AMERICAN COLUMNIST: Thank you for having me again, Rachel.

MADDOW: So, who would you say is the leadership, the trusted leaders, the trusted institutions, in this community at a time when leadership seems like it`s sorely need?

BROWN: I think that we have to start the conversation with the observation that prior to what has happened in Ferguson, there`s been a leadership void. There has been a leadership void politically. We have one African-American elected official in the Ferguson area.

There`s been a political void with respect to organizations reaching out and connecting with young people. There`s been a political void in the sense that citizens have pulled themselves out of the political process.

So, there`s a void for leadership in this community. And I think that some of the things that we`re seeing on the ground right now is a reflection of the fact that there is a void.

And then what happens when you have a void? Well, you have some people that may want to jump in and fill the void and the question becomes, should those be the people that are jumping in to address this? Have they earned the credibility? Have they made the connection? Have they worked collaboratively with any other organizations?

Those are the questions that we have to ask before we even deem anyone a leader or a non-leader.

MADDOW: And over the course of these nine days, have you seen anything productive toward building trusted leadership? I mean, rather than people just leaping into the void and declaring themselves in charge? Or declaring themselves an inspiration? Have you seen anything constructive and ground up and real in terms of people eventually earning their way into positions of trust?

BROWN: Well, one of the things that I`ve seen, there`s a person that I have worked with in the past who has stepped quietly in to begin to organize young people. He`s brought together about 60 or 70 young people who came to him withes we of what do we do?

And this person`s expertise is political. He`s a community organizer. What he has done is he`s managed to begin to train these young people and as of today, all 60 of those young people, before this event they were not registered to vote.

But as of today, they are registered to vote and they`re coming together to try to figure out a plan moving forward, because they`re being taught that. It matters that you -- whether or not you engage yourself politically. You have to have control of your political world.

I submit to you, Rachel, that have there been active and engaged political activity within this community, we wouldn`t be where we are right now.

MADDOW: It`s been inspiring to see ordinary people putting themselves between looters and local shops or coming out to clean up the streets the next day. Is that all ad hoc at this point? Is that a potential building block as the community is trying to move to sort of a more lasting peace and a more integrated sense of taking care of their own -- taking care of themselves as a community?

BROWN: Well, I think that that serves more to let the world know who Ferguson is. What the citizens of Ferguson are. They`re a community. They care about their community. That`s almost an instinctual thing. I don`t know it`s a building thing in as much as showing the world what we do when we`re challenged like this.

MADDOW: Lizz Brown, attorney and columnist for "The St. Louis American", who`s been talking about these issues of leadership and context in a way that`s been really important from the very beginning.

It`s great to have you here, Lizz. Thank you very much.

BROWN: Thank you, again, Rachel, for having me.

MADDOW: All right. Appreciate it.

All right. We`ve got some more from Ferguson ahead, but we`ve also got some of the day`s other big news and we`ll be right back with that.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: This is live video you`re looking at here. We`re going to have the latest coming up from Ferguson, Missouri, which as of tonight importantly is a city without a state-enforced curfew. The National Guard has been called out. We`ll have more live from Ferguson in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Today, even though he is still in the middle of his vacation, President Obama was back at the White House for a day. The president gave those highly anticipated remarks about the situation in Ferguson this afternoon.

But before he did that, he spoke at length on the situation in Iraq. Earlier in the day today, the Pentagon had announced there had been another 15 U.S. airstrikes around the largest dam in Iraq, which Kurdish forces have been trying to retake from the Sunni militant group is.

President Obama this afternoon announced those operations were successful. And Iraqi and Kurdish forces were able to retake this incredibly, strategically important, and huge site from the militant group.

Congress for its part has shown no signs of wanting to weigh in at all on what`s now looking like a long and extensive new military operation in Iraq.

But with nearly 900 U.S. troops there, the president today announced at least that strategic victory at the dam in Mosul.

With all eyes on the continuing situation in Ferguson, particularly every night as the sun goes down and the country turns its eyes to Missouri to figure out if the protests are going to continue there another day, there is some other news that would be front-page stuff if it weren`t getting crowded out by this other major story.

Among other things to keep an eye on are U.S. Senate races. Friday the last two precincts in Hawaii that had not voted in the Democratic senate primary, those last two precincts were allowed to hold their own mini election in which they chose incumbent Senator Brian Schatz as the Democratic nominee to run for re-election for that Senate seat. Mr. Schatz is heavily favored to win that race in November, if only because Hawaii is such a blue state.

On Saturday, Democrats in Montana picked their replacement for incumbent Senator John Walsh, who dropped out in a plagiarism scandal. In somewhat of a surprise move, Montana Democrats picked a 34-year-old first-term state senator named Amanda Curtis. She`s going to have what looked like it will be an uphill race to try to win that Senate seat but it will probably be a fun one, running against conservative Republican Congressman Steve Daines.

And we also got news today about when we might see Governor Rick Perry in court. Governor Rick Perry of Texas late in the day Friday hit with a two-count felony indictment on abuse of power charges. The governor has been defiant in response. He says these were partisan charges.

He went on "FOX News Sunday" this weekend and blamed -- President Obama? Sure, why not. Even though this is a state matter, has nothing to do with the federal government at all.

Governor Perry announced today he hired Ben Ginsburg, Republican lawyer to the stars, to mount his defense in this case. A state judge in Texas announced today that Governor Perry will be officially arraigned this Friday, August 22nd.

It`s not yet clear when Rick Perry will be booked which will mean fingerprints and a mug shot, but he is going to be arraigned in court this Friday. Set your Google alert now.

I`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: These are live pictures from the ninth straight day of protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri state highway patrol was asked how he thinks things are going tonight on the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Are you satisfied how things are going so far?

JOHNSON: I am, I am. I think everybody`s getting their freedoms. They`re able to voice their opinion.

REPORTER: How confident are you it`s going to stay this way as we go through the evening?

JOHNSON: We`re going to do everything we can to make sure it stays that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol explaining how he thinks things are going tonight. Again, there`s no curfew tonight in Ferguson, the way there was the last two nights.

But this is the scene live right now in Ferguson. MSNBC is going to have continuing coverage of day nine of these protests throughout the night tonight.

That does it for us now.

It`s time for "THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL".

Good evening, Lawrence.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.END

<Copy: Content and programming copyright 2014 MSNBC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2014 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.>